The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Ahmedabad Rural Police has busted an illegal hookah bar operating from an office premises in South Bopal and seized hookah-related items and flavoured tobacco worth over ₹10,000, officials said on Wednesday.
According to the FIR, the raid was carried out in the early hours of October 12, 2025, between 1.30 am and 3 am, at Office No. 311 in B Block of the Aarohi Galleria Complex, South Bopal. Acting on specific inputs, the SOG team discovered that the office was being used as an unauthorised hookah bar, with customers being called in for monetary gain.
The accused was identified as Dhruv alias Kano Manishbhai Brahmbhatt (27), who claimed to be the manager of the premises. During the raid, police found several customers consuming hookah inside the office, which had been converted into a lounge-style setup with sofas, curtained glass walls and hookah equipment placed in the open hall.
Police said one customer revealed that he was charged ₹700 per hookah, while another person was found assisting in the operation by handling coal. The accused failed to produce any licence or permission to run a hookah bar.
During the search, officers seized 18 packets of different flavoured hookah substances, hookah bases, clay chillums, pipes, filters, coconut charcoal packets and other accessories. The total value of the seized items was estimated at ₹10,200.
Initially, the accused claimed the flavours were herbal and nicotine-free. However, samples sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Ahmedabad, later tested positive for nicotine, as confirmed in the report dated November 29, 2025.
Following the findings, a case was registered at Bopal Police Station under provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2017. Police said further investigation is ongoing to determine whether similar illegal operations were running elsewhere and to identify others involved.